Now I’m voting for Trump
In August of 2015, my mind was nowhere near the presidential election process. As I sat in a cabin in upstate Pennsylvania, I thought about my dying Uncle Mike in the next room. Uncle Mike was a Vietnam veteran, and he was heavily involved in veterans care until the end. The comradery among veterans was always everlasting, but the care that these brave heroes received from the Veterans Administration was despicable. The VA diagnosed Uncle Mike with lung cancer in April 2015, and it was far too late in the process for any successful treatment.
The VA failed its first test: identifying the disease.
When Uncle Mike was in the local veterans hospital, he was so disgusted with the quality of care that he decided to leave the hospital, without the staff noticing. A police officer found him, a cancer patient, walking on the side of the highway in his hospital gown.
The VA failed its second test: supporting the ill patient. When Uncle Mike was on his deathbed, the VA refused to give him the means necessary to alleviate his labored breathing. It sounded as if he were breathing with lungs full of liquid, sounding more and more painful with each gasp, but the VA staff responded with hostility rather than sympathy. My aunt and VA staff members came short of trading blows before they finally succumbed to the request. My Uncle Mike died peacefully in his sleep late that night.
The VA failed its third test: comforting a dying man. I am not blaming the Veterans Administration for my uncle’s cancer diagnosis. Cancer is an unstoppable force in the medical field, and great people die every day from some form of it; however, the VA is responsible for its apathetic demeanor to our veterans in need.
The VA is directly responsible for putting forth the utmost minimal effort to those who deserve first priority care. In November, I will vote for Donald Trump because he identifies the problems within the Veterans Administration. “Veterans should come first in the country they fought to protect, and under a Trump administration they will — America First, Veterans First.”
Patrick Foley
Fox Chase/Burholme
DROP program is a scam
Mr. Mayor, exactly when did Philly’s pilot program called DROP become part of the city “workers” contract?
It seems to me that when the union insists on putting it in the contract, all the mayor had to say would be “No way!”
Warren Patterson
Fox Chase
Philadelphia Traffic Court is an absolute disgrace
Traffic Court is a joke, transformed into a kangaroo court.
You will not see a Common Pleas Court judge. There will be no official hearing by a judge of any stature. And there will be no reasonable appeals process.
You’ll be found guilty by someone in street clothes sitting behind a desk, and telling you that you won’t have points assessed if you relinquish your fine and accept the guilty verdict.
On July 28, I went to Traffic Court with a friend on a “Failure to make a complete stop at a stop sign” charge, fully expecting a dismissal if the policeman was not present. The policeman was not there, but there was no dismissal and there was no judge — it was a total fiasco.
We were called into a small office for this so-called hearing and found a young woman, casually dressed, purporting to be a judge, at the head of this table, and another woman claiming to be from the District Attorney’s office across this table.
The young woman asked my friend how she was pleading and she replied ‘not guilty,’ that she did indeed stop.
At that point, despite the fact that the policeman was not there to testify, the woman said, “I’m finding you guilty.”
I immediately protested, saying, “But she’s not guilty. She just testified that she did stop,” to which the judge responded, “Well, I found her guilty,” while leering at me. She followed up by saying that she would not assess points.
When I inquired afterward about the appeals process, I was told that there were only three days to do that, within limited hours, and an additional fee. In other words, making it as difficult as possible for us, and finally my friend relented and agreed to relinquish the fine and pay the additional $23.
An American citizen would not expect to be treated this harshly in a third-world country, and yet it’s happening right here in Philadelphia Traffic Court every day.
Jim O’Keefe
Castor Gardens
